The Complete Retirement Planner Blog
The Number One Rule Of Retirement Planning
Retirement planning can certainly be overwhelming. With daily articles offering suggestions about how much to save, how much to withdraw annually from retirement accounts, how to choose when to claim Social Security, diversifying investments, if you should pay off a mortgage before retiring, etc., it can be tough to know where to start. Since you are reading this, you're headed in the right direction. However, while gathering information is important, the real goal is to take concrete steps towards being financially well prepared. You can delay retirement itself, delay claiming Social Security, and delay re-balancing your portfolio, but don't delay the...
Keep Working or Retire? Say Yes To Both?
There are distinct advantages to continuing to work as long as you can - or at least as long as you can stand to. A dependable income is the most obvious, but the workplace can also offer a sense of self worth and a social aspect that should not be taken for granted. After decades of work, you can't help but to make a lot of personal and professional connections that become important to you. On the other hand, even if you've built a nice working life for yourself (or, especially if it all hasn't worked out just the way...
The 2025 Complete Retirement Planner!
The 2025 version of The Complete Retirement Planner (TCRP 2025) has just been released!As always, this update includes the most recent tax code changes, 401k/IRA and HSA contribution limits, and Medicare premiums. Several new features have also been added that will further solidify TCRP's reputation as being one of the most comprehensive retirement planning tools available (and still at an unbeatable price!). But don't let the low price fool you - it is not because TCRP is lacking in any way, we do it because we CAN, and because it makes a significant difference for households across the country. Our...
Plan Your Own Path And Pay No Attention To the People Behind The Curtain.
As we approach the end of another year, and another election cycle, it is a good time to separate out all of the information swirling around us (good and bad), and strive to see the forest for the trees. How can we be sure to have only the most accurate information, disregard all of the other the "noise", and use that information to its best advantage to help us to learn, grow, and ensure that we are aware of all of our options for reaching our goals?In terms of financial planning (what did you think I was writing about? ☺)...
Auto-Savings in TCRP - Use It, Don't Lose It.
When using any financial planning tool, it is important to make sure that it is capable of considering as many variables as possible (or at least those that apply to your specific situation) so that it can generate the most thorough and accurate results. For the purposes of this post, we will discuss what happens if annual income exceeds what is needed to pay expenses (including taxes). Some planning tools, believe it or not, do not account for any excess income. The Fidelity planning tool (nothing against Fidelity, but their planning tool is a good example in this case) states...